B.C. Views Payroll control and the BCTF. p6
Mall underway this year, opens 2013. p11
THE NEWS
Arts&life Wendy Biscuit’s got the blues. p35
www.mapleridgenews.com Wednesday, March 28, 2012 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · 50¢
15 cats mutilated in Maple Ridge Most recent one found in Hammond Park on March 11 by M o n i s h a M a r t i n s staff reporter
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Fiery crash Maple Ridge firefighters douse a car after it drove off Lougheed Highway by Spillsbury Road on Monday, knocking over a light standard before stopping in a ditch. See story, p15.
Fifteen mutilated cats have been found in Maple Ridge over the past year, prompting the B.C. SPCA to seek the public’s help to find who is responsible. The most recent case relates to March 11, when the bottom half of a black and white cat was found in Hammond Park. But the SPCA believes the mutilations began in June 2011. “In many of these incidents, the cats have been severed almost perfectly in half with a sharp object,” said Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations for the B.C. SPCA. “It appears to be a very deliberate action and we can only imagine the unspeakable pain these poor animals must have suffered.” See Cats, p5
School events already cancelled Teachers’ ban on volunteering takes effect by R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r f staff reporter
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School events across the district are being cancelled this week as a ban by Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows teachers on extracurricular volunteering took effect on Monday. At Maple Ridge secondary, the school’s Ka-Vroom soapbox derby is one of the events that
race against time to tell war stories. See story, p3 NEW
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won’t be happening this year as a result. The annual event is organized by the school’s Grade 8 FACTS (For Academically Creative and Talented Students) program, with the “hope of bringing our community together by having families working together to make a cart to race,” according to the event’s website. At Thomas Haney secondary, teachers are considering cancelling the girls’ soccer season, which is set to get underway next week. Andrea Clayton, the school’s athletic director, said while many
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teachers are upset with the provincial government for legislating them back to work, some teachers don’t want to give up coaching their sports teams. “A lot of people are emotionally charged right now,” she said. Schools across the district are also looking at cancelling track and field and rugby seasons. Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school board chair Mike Murray said extracurricular activities are an important part of school culture. “For many students, they are a very enriching part of their
education. Certainly they were a very important to me during my time ... in secondary school,” he said. “But I respect the situation is a difficult one.” Maple Ridge Teachers’ Association president George Serra said local teachers voted in favour of halting extracurricular volunteering earlier this month because they were left with few other options in their ongoing contract dispute with the provincial government, after being legislated back to work after a threeday walkout earlier this month. See Teachers, p8
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